Mistletoe
by UnderdogAngel
Summary: It's Christmastime, and Zack and Balthier have got something up their sleeves for their girlfriends...but what? They're dying to know! But then they have to wonder, Do they REALLY want to know? Co-written by Amadora! Enjoy!


**Alright, everybody. This here's a short Christmas fic (it's a little late, but it's still that time of year, soyeah)! My amazingly awesome friend Amadora (a.k.a. Pony) is co-writing it (go read her stories -now, I say!), and it's our first collab together (expect more soon!), so this should get pretty interesting...!**

**We do not own **_**Final Fantasy VII**_**, **_**Final Fantasy XII**_**, or any characters therein. If we did, I can assure you that there would be some changes to storylines and possibly love interests as well. Just saying.**

**As with most of our plot ideas, this one came from a rather hyper discussion we were having while hanging out. This particular one dealt with our favorite **_**FF**_** guys and Christmas. This is the result. It would mean a lot to us if you'd leave us a little review -just something to tell us what you think of it. :) Hope you all like it!**

**Oh, and it's a little late, but, Merry Christmas! Enjoy!**

**-I. Plans-**

_Kelsey_

"Okay, wait, I'm confused." I turned to the pink-streaked brunette sitting in front of me.

"Don't look at me," she said, holding her hands up as if in surrender. "It's not like I'm the one who planned this whole thing."

"Yes, but how could you just let them do this?" I asked, leaning against the wall behind me.

"Are you forgetting that your boyfriend is also in on this?"

I sighed and ran a hand through my short brown hair. Pony (the girl I was talking to, pretty much my best friend) and I may have been hopeless romantics, but those romantic things just became utterly uncomfortable when it concered our own boyfriends. It's like that saying that says something is good in theory, but, in actuality, it doesn't work out so well.

Not that we didn't like our boyfriends. It'd be kinda difficult to be in a relationship with someone you didn't even remotely like. But...let's just say things could get weird when you were dating a SOLDIER and a sky pirate.

Since Pony and I were practically sisters, it was only natural that our boyfriends would get to know each ohter as well. In the process of this, they found that they both had some...similarties where dealing with us girls was concerned. This amounted to lots of surprises and secret plannings that usually turned out okay somehow. But, hey, at least we had memories...right?

But I just knew that this time was going to be especially weird and/or memorable because it was Christmastime. Our classes were ending soon, and vacation was quickly approaching. So, of course, the surprises and secret planning came back.

"You just know Balthier's the mastermind behind it," I said.

"Are you saying Zack has no brains?" Pony asked with a smirk.

"No!" I said quickly. "I'm just saying... Baltheir's just crafty in that way. Zack's sort of hyperactive and will usually go along with something if he's sure it involves a good time."

"Oh, a good time, huh?"

"Would you get your mind outta the gutter, Pony!" I could already feel my face turning pink, and I didn't want it to turn red. Then she'd know for sure that I knew exactly what she'd meant by that comment.

"_Your_ mind is in the gutter for thinking _mine's_ in the gutter, KELSEY!"

This, of course, caused the both of us to crack up and double over laughing (not an unusual occurrence when we were together). But the laughing fit was broken up by our cell phones going off.

Pony's: _"Hey, I'm talkin' to you. You better answer your phone, or it's not gonna be cool."_ (Soul from _Soul Eater_.)

Mine: "Sakura Kiss", the theme song from _Ouran High School Host Club_.

Yeah, we were nerds. So sue us.

I dug my phone out of the pocket of my skinny jeans, and Pony picked hers up from where it had been sitting on her bed next to her.

We raised our phones to our ears, and greeted our callers with a "Hello?" and a "What's up?"

_Pony_

"Sup?"

There was little to no reply and I frowned.

"Hold on, I'm switching ears." It was a really annoying habit of mine to pick up my celly and place it to my right ear. There is a problem with this though -I can't hear the person on my celly with my right ear. Therefore I have to switch ears and use my left, which might I add is very uncomfortable when one likes to use the right ear for listening purposes.

"You forgot, did you not?"

I rolled my eyes, "I didn't forget, Kelsey was distracting me..." (Kelsey cast me a knowing glance at this point, I used her as a distraction excuse a lot when I talked to my boyfriend.) Of course she hadn't been distracting me, but the thought of some sort of satisfying smirk on my boyfriend's face irked me. "You didn't call me to talk about my celly problems, now did you?" It was my turn to smirk, for there was a couple seconds' hesitation on his part.

"No, I suppose you're right. I didn't call you to talk about such a trivial matter. Kelsey is on her talking-device too, is she not?"

I blinked. Yeah, in fact she was. We'd been called at the same time.

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "Yeah she is, what of it? You aren't stalking her… are you?"

Of course I could trust Kelsey, and I highly doubted (meaning I'd bet you my life) that my boyfriend would ever go after my friend, but I was cursed with a slight womanizer for a boyfriend. There were times I had to question his motives for certain things, and other times I just had to throw up my hands and threaten to "punt him through a whale." Simple as that.

He ignored my question, "Good then, that means Zack called her."

He was mumbling to himself a bit and I tilted my head slightly, trying to catch a bit of Kelsey's conversation. I did this a lot -"eavesdropping"- but it was only to Kelsey really, and I knew when to not do it. Like if it was personal stuff, otherwise I'd listen to her talk and throw in my own comment or two. And at the moment I couldn't help but throw in a few things.

"Tell him no, and shame on him."

Kelsey looked at me and blinked, "What?… One second Zack, Pony said something. What?"

"You said something about him coming over right? It was him suggesting it wasn't it?"

She nodded her head and I smiled.

"Tell him shame on him for inviting himself over, and-"

"Pony…" This time it was my boyfriend trying to butt into my conversation with Kelsey.

I ignored him like any good person would do. "And be sure to tell him 'no' cause I don't approve." It was all in good nature. It wasn't like I was actually controlling Kelsey or her boyfriend -Heaven knows I would never try to control them. I think Kelsey would have my head and her boyfriend… Well I'd never let him figure it out.

Kelsey chuckled and relayed the message to her boyfriend whom seemed to not take it too well. For some reason, he always thought I was serious. It was like he didn't have a sarcastic bone in his body that corresponded with my own sarcastic bones.

"I'm back. What were you saying Balthier?" I looked up at the glow-in-the-dark-stars on my ceiling and smiled. It was almost Christmas time, so I had a lot of jolly-good-humored-thoughts going on in my head. Some involving my boyfriend and others not so involving him.

"It's not what I'm saying that is at question, but more of what you are not saying…"

I pursed my lips a bit, "Yeah, I got nothing… Are you sure you're speaking to me? Or did you want someone else?" I hated it when he spoke in ways that made me have to think, though in the very same way that I hated it, I actually really loved it. He was such a debater and his way of speaking made him all that much more attractive.

"Oh, forget it. I called because I wanted to know what your plans were for this evening. I've tidied up the ship a bit -though it still does lack a woman's touch- and have a rather large green shrub that lacks decoration. Does anything I've mentioned hold interest to you? If not, I'm sur-"

"It holds interest~" I couldn't help but grin like the silly brunette I was. And I believe it was the cause of this grin that caused Kelsey to stare at me as if I was in fact going to implode from happiness. "Bean-sprout~ How would you feel about taking a little trip this evening to a Sky Pirate's den?" I bit the end of my tongue, gently trying to hold back a rather girlish squeal. If Balthier was inviting me to his ship this evening, and Zack and him had called at the same time… That meant they had to be working together, right?

Kelsey sighed and nodded. She was excited -I at least hoped she was-, but she was also getting a bit annoyed with my jumping in to her conversation with such enthusiasm. "Yeah, uh-huh. Sounds good to me, Zack."

My curiosity was growing, but I needed to keep quiet, if not for the fact of being respectful, for the fact that Kelsey might suddenly chuck her celly at me.

"Sure, Balthier. Are you-"

"Ah, good, well then I do believe your ride is already being claimed; and I have matters to address. See you when it's time, oh and do wear something ladylike, okay?" And with that he hung up.

I frowned and glared at my phone until Kelsey too hung up.

"Zack's coming to pick us up in a couple of hours." She smiled and it was obvious that the two of us had pretty much forgotten that our boyfriends were dumb-headed-master-minds-of-romantic-awkwardness. Slowly, she tilted her head and blinked. "What did Balthier say?"

The frown on my face grew longer, if that was even possible. "He told me to wear something ladylike…" I looked up at her exhaled. Leave it to my boyfriend to point out the fact that I don't dress like a woman always.

After a couple minutes of silence I shrugged my shoulders. "If Zack is picking us up, and we're going to Balthier's… And he said to dress nicely… Perhaps for once this may be an okay thing? Though I still don't know why we're letting them lead us around like this..." I shook my head and set my celly down on my bed.

It wasn't like Kelsey knew the answers to our boyfriend problems, but it sure would have been nice if at least one of us did.

_Kelsey_

Something ladylike? I wondered. I think Balthier is the only person in the world that would be able to convince her to wear anything semi-ladylike. Well, I probably could, really. If I used a British accent.

"Got any idea what they're up to?" I asked as I dug through my blue duffel bag for something other than my old jeans (which had a few small, muddy dogprints on them from Pony's schipperke, Baer) to wear to wherever it was we were going. (Apparently, Balthier's place.)

Pony shrugged, rolling off her bed onto the floor and walking over to her closet. "I don't know, but if Balthier thinks I actually _own_ something other than jeans and cargo pants..."

"We both know that you do have that girly stuff, but that you don't like wearing it, so you stuff it in the back of you closet."

I didn't have to look at Pony to know she was rolling her blue-grey eyes. "Uh-huh. Sure," she said dryly.

I kept looking through the clothes I'd brought, thinking about what Zack had told me moments ago. He said he'd be coming over to pick us up, then we were going over to Balthier's to "hang out." I knew that was code for, "Balthier and I are up to something, but I'm not going to tell you, no matter what you do." Oh, and he'd said to "dress up a little."

In December? Uh...yeah, why?

"What girl in her right mind wears a skirt or whatever in December?" Pony muttered from her closet.

"Just what I was thinking," I said. "Think they'd settle for jeans and a nicer top? I don't wanna turn into more of an icicle than I already am!"

"Well, you also don't have any body fat, so..."

I gave her a look, but laughed. "This is true," I said, nodding.

It was no secret that I was...somewhat tiny. Thin, 5'4", and a veritable Bean-sprout (one of the many reasons Pony called me that nickname). And Zack was just over six feet tall. Plus he was a SOLDIER. Go figure.

"Yeah, well, you manage to make jeans and a top look somewhat ladylike," Pony said. "You know how it works with clothes in my family..."

I nodded. "It has to be high quality and functional because you do lots of work and lots of things outside, so brand-names are unimportant. Not that they're important anyway, but you don't want to be wearing some really expensive jacket while going out to feed the horses."

She nodded. "Exactly."

Pony's family ran a koi fish shop (meaning they sold the fish, plants, filters, pond-lining, all that good stuff), and they also had horses, chickens, two bigger dogs, and one smaller (the schipperke). Meanwhile, my mother worked in a grocery store, my dad worked at a Rite-Aid, and we had two cats, a goldfish, and a papillion puppy. (And I think we both had brothers somewhere in there.) I may have been from the moutains where it was winter nine months of the year, but that didn't mean I liked going outside. So, let's just say that Pony and I dressed differently on most occassions. (Excpet on those rare days when we'd both show up in blue T-shirts and cargo pants.)

I pulled out a darker, somewhat dressier pair of skinny jeans, tossing them up on Pony's bed. "Well, you've gotta figure something out," I said. "Time's ticking away." I pulled out a short-sleeved black-and-white striped sweater, and tossed that up on the bed, too. A black tank top underneath, and it'll be fine, I thought.

Pony sighed, and I heard her moving hangars back and forth on the rack in her closet. "Yeah, says the one who actually has some _idea_ of what to wear! I mean, it's not like I can wear my Steampunk stuff from Halloween..."

I stood from where I'd been kneeling on the floor and went over to Pony's closet. "Here." I flipped through the various articles of clothing, my hand landing on a fancy-looking black tank top. There were fake white jewels sewn all along the neckline -very cute. I pushed the top into her hands. "Now just find you nicest pair of pants and you're all set."

She looked at the top for a moment, then at me, then back at the shirt. It was almost like she were wondering if this was some sort of trick of mine.

I laughed softly. "Just get changed, will ya?"

She exhaled and went over to her dresser in search of pants.

I changed out of my own T-shirt and old jeans into the clothes I'd dug out of my suitcase. I tugged on the slight off-the-shoulder neckline of the sweater, and on the bottom of it. It was meant to not fit like a regular sweater, so I'd just have to get used to the not-quite-long-enough bottom of it (which I shouldn't have been worried about anyway since I was wearing a tank top underneath, but that's me for you).

Pony had managed to find a non-holey pair of blue flare jeans, and they worked very nicely with the tank top.

I gave her a thumbs-up, which she returned with a nervous smile.

"Oh, don't give me that look," I said. "You look great!"

"Thanks," she said, tugging on the bottom of her shirt as well.

I then went back to my bag and dug out my hair straightener and makeup bag. Pony followed me out of her room to her bathroom, and we both took a place in front of the mirror-slash-medicine cabinet.

"I'm sorta glad my dad's not here," she said.

"Why's that?" I asked. "Because of the whole makeup-wearing thing?" It wasn't that her dad didn't like it -he just wasn't used to seeing her wear it, so... Well, his reaction had been something like, "What happened to your face? !"

...I know, right?

"I just find it strange that he's never said anything to you about it even though he's seen you with and without makeup!" she said, looking through some drawers for her ever-elusive mascara.

I shrugged. "It's not like your parents have seen _that_ much of me..."

She stood and gave me a look. "You're kidding, right?"

"Of course I am," I said. "Geez, I practically live here. It's like I just use my dorm at school for my mailing address."

My hair straightener beeped at me, saying that it was heated up. I picked it up and started straightening what I could of my short hair. I managed to get the asymmetrical cut straight, but not without burning some fingers and knuckles in the process.

"You always burn yourself," Pony said, picking up her own straightener.

"I know," I said, fake-whimpering as I ran my left hand under cold water. The proof of Pony's statement was in the various little burn marks on my left hand. Oh, well, I thought. Kelsey "Danger" strikes again, I guess...

"Zack said a couple hours, right?"

"Right," I said, pulling my pocket watch out and looking at it. I sighed. A couple hours seemed like such a long ways away. "At least we'll be ready on time..."

"No kidding," Pony said, laughing once.

"Guess they thought we'd take a long time to get ready -us being _girls_ and all."

We both laughed.

"Or..."

I looked at Pony.

"Are they stalling for something?"

My blue-green eyes widened at this possiblity. "Ahm..."

"My point exactly," she said.

"Well, uh..." I dug my eyeliner out of my makeup bag. "Let's just... Yeah, now I'm nervous again."

"Where Balthier and Zack are concerned, is it ever right _not_ to be nervous?" she asked.

"The day they plot something actually _normal_ is when I'll start to worry."

"Right."

"So we shouldn't worry?"

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps?"

"Look, we know it'll be interesting, right?"

"...Right," I said hesitantly.

"So let's just...see what happens. I guess."

I rolled my eyes. "Your certainty is very reassuring."


End file.
